The construction industry, a major driver of environmental impact, faces growing pressure to adopt circular practices. Reusing high-carbon building components offers substantial benefits, yet remains limited. This paper’s key contribution is investigating the European construction reuse market through combining environmental analysis, barriers for reuse, and observations of reuse platforms conducted over 7–11 months in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, and Switzerland, providing the foundation for a multi-criteria framework to assess reuse potential of building components.

Environmental assessments show that components with high embodied CO2, e.g., structural metal and concrete, windows, and doors, hold the greatest potential for reducing emissions. However, their reuse is constrained by various technical, economic, social and logistical challenges. The reuse market data analysis reveals stable prices and steady demand for standardised items (e.g., bricks, sinks, WC units), while design-sensitive components like doors, windows, and stairs exhibit broader price ranges and fluctuating demand. Structural components, especially concrete and metal, face unstructured markets due to reliance on demolition-driven supply and inconsistent valuation.

Architects, engineers, and real estate owners report barriers such as technical uncertainty, lack of standardised data, high initial costs, and fragmented reverse logistics. Reuse materials sellers and consultants highlight closed trading practices and limited market transparency, restricting the exchange and integration of high-value reusable components.

The work findings demonstrate that while many building components are technically reusable, achieving sustainable reuse requires balancing environmental benefits with economic viability, technical feasibility, and social acceptance. The paper advocates for an integrated reuse potential assessment framework that accounts for these multidimensional factors, bridging the gap between theoretical potential, existing reuse market and real-world construction industry requirements and practice.